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Charles Barkley has starred in commercials with Dwyane Wade, but he has never shied away from offering opinions about the Heat guard — or anyone else.

“The toughest thing for Dwyane Wade [as he gets older] is understanding that he’s starting to lose his [natural] talent and now he has to learn how to play below the basket,” Barkley said during Thursday’s telecast. “That’s the toughest thing when you’re a great …

So often, today’s contemporary stars are criticized for not reaching out to their predecessors, for assuming they know everything and can’t possibly learning anything.

LeBron James, however, has a healthy respect for history. And it has bothered him at times — as was evident in an interview that I conducted over All-Star Weekend — that he has not received the approval of all the NBA’s legends.

They were the two best players on the East, one with a team-high 36 points, the other with the third triple-double in All-Star history.

That’s not what most people seem to be talking about today.

For LeBron James, the question is why he didn’t shoot during the East’s final possession, when he had two separate touches. On the first one, he passed to a wide-open Deron Williams, whose shot was way short. …

Charles Barkley, in an interview alongside Reggie Miller on NBA TV, said that “I think we as players need to realistic. These owners are hurting and the only thing that hasn’t gone down in the last three years is players’ salaries and those are going to continue to escalate. …

Jeff Van Gundy, the former coach and current ABC analyst, doesn’t buy into the belief that you must hold up the trophy to be considered a champion.

“You’ll never be able to convince me that John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, LeBron James are not champions because they never win,” Van Gundy said. “So much of being a champion is ‘Do you prepare yourself, do you the right things …

The issue: Reggie Miller, on the TNT broadcast Thursday night, spoke of the importance of finishing atop the East.

(This is directly from the TNT release)

“I think (the Heat) have enough to secure the number one seed. I love Dwyane Wade, he is a fabulous player, but stop whining to America by saying that is doesn’t matter that you don’t get the number one seed. It does (matter) because …